The following is an excerpt of an email sent by Andrea Lee, President of St. Catherine University.
The Committee on Accreditation for the American Library Association (ALA) has informed me that St. Catherine University has been granted initial accreditation without stipulation for the MLIS program. For the first time in St. Catherine’s long and distinguished history with library education, we now possess a fully accredited master’s-level library and information science program. Ours is the only accredited program in Minnesota and one of only 57 throughout North America.
What this means for our more than 800 alumnae and current students, our faculty members and, indeed, our state and region is almost beyond measure.
An accredited MLIS degree better positions graduates for professional-level employment nationwide; it allows us to launch a chapter of Beta Phi Mu, the national library science honor society; and it makes students eligible for a variety of scholarships, including one from the ALA that promotes ethnic diversity in library science. And, of course, accreditation fulfills a key initiative of our 2020 Vision strategic plan — namely, to position St. Catherine University for national preeminence in a number of our core academic areas.
